Two hundred white elderly Americans, living independently will be compared with fifty (50) unable to live on their own. All will have yearly physical and laboratory examinations, computerized tomographic studies of the brain, and the Older American Resources and Services (OARS) questionnaires, and psychological and psychiatric examinations. During 1979 all of the subjects have completed their second examination. Seventy-three of the independently living elderly have been retested for the third year. An attempt is now being made to enroll the 50 subjects living in institutional settings. We have been able to get twenty (20) of the fifty subjects living in the institutional settings, and their first examinations have been completed. Comparison of first to second year data indicates a worsening of all our measures including more prevalence of brain atrophy. The nursing home subjects are similarly more impaired in almost all measures than are the independent living group. However, not withstanding this information, only a very few of our independently living subjects have significantly changed their ability to continue to live independently.